Taming a Dark Heart - Ch.2 - Melody For a Soul

Jackie and I walked back to the bar, her helping me walk, even though I had told her I was ok and didn’t need help...I guess that’s a good friend right?
We continued serving drinks like nothing had happened. The club was as packed as ever and the tips were actually pretty good. In that environment you don’t have much time to do anything else but I still couldn’t get my mind off of what had happened earlier, and just who was that guy who showed up out of nowhere?
Well 4am eventually came, closing time, and Jackie and I were just about to leave when we heard shouting, "I want you girls to know that if you dare do that again Ill fire both of you, do I make myself clear?!", that was our boss Vinny. He told us off so often and threatened to fire us that I just really didn’t care today. "Did you hear me you stupid little girls....!"
I mumbled a yes under my voice trying to contain my anger. I wanted to just knock him out but I knew he would definitely see me out the door then.

Jackie and I lived in opposite directions. A cab at this hour would be way too expensive and we needed the money.
You see, I’m studying music and Jackie; well she has a 3 year old baby boy to see to.

We said our goodbyes and I wrapped my coat around me tighter as smoke formed from my breathing. It was really quiet at this time. No one was up yet and it was still dark because of the winter. I had this strange feeling as I was walking that someone was following me...
As a picked up my pace, two men wearing balaclavas approached me. I got such a fright and screamed. The one pulled me toward him and held a piece of clothe over my mouth. It was definitely dosed with something because I started becoming light headed.
As my eyes were clouding over I heard some more people come and punches being thrown.
"Let go of her now, I’m warning you, one last chance..."
Then I heard a trigger and the guy holding me, crumpled to the ground along with myself.

*************************

"What, what, let go of me!" I was thrashing about as I woke up. I opened my eyes and realized I wasn’t in my own bed. This bed was all white with fluffy white pillows and a thick white duvet that felt like it was full of feathers. The room smelt clean (I know that sounds weird), I guess kinda like lemons.

I sat up and looked around. Wow, this room was huge. It was a bit like a huge hotel room – really big and fancy but not something a real person’s room would look like. It had a huge chandelier in the middle covered in crystals and a big LCD tv mounted on the wall opposite the bed. The walls had this brownish type of design that I thought looked kinda cool but not for me. It had a bathroom to the right, but the best part was the balcony to the left of the bed. "Just where the heck am I ..."

I jumped out of the bed, still in my work clothes (damn). I heard movement coming from down stairs and I was so hungry that I was sure I could smell food too. I walked down this swirling stairway that l looked like it was out of a movie. It was all black but had intricate detail on it. There was no one around. I walked up to this beautiful dark -wood door that had a gold handle. It looked like real gold to me. I slowly opened the door and peeked in. "I was waiting for you to come down", this voice came from behind this big chair behind a desk on the other end of the room. I knew this voice...

As the chair swung around I was met by emerald green eyes, the same eyes that had chilled me last night. "Come here now, I need to tell you our plans, have a seat". What was this guy on about?
I slowly walked over to the desk and felt like a child being sent to the principal’s office. I sat on one of the chairs and crossed my hands over my lap a bit afraid to look into those green-green eyes.
"What am I doing here, Where am I, Who are you?" It all came out as a string and then there was silence. His eyes remained unresponsive through all of it.
"I’m talking now", he didn’t shout but I was lost in his eyes at the same time. He didn’t even look very old. I would say about 3 or 4 years older than me which would make him around 24.

"I can’t tell you much right now but you need to be moved away from your apartment", his statement caught me off guard. Where was I supposed to go? How did I know I could trust him?
"Today your stuff is being moved here, if you need any assistance you can ask James, you will meet him soon". What was I supposed to do? I was too scared to talk but I desperately wanted all my questions answered.
"To answer your questions- one, this is the only place you can be kept safe for now; two, you are in my villa and office; three, who I am isn’t important right now but for the record, my name is Gabriele Lombardi. Do you have any more questions?" Well sure I had about a million but I just didn’t feel comfortable to ask them all now so I narrowed it down to one.
"Please tell me, why is this happening? I just wanna do my music and get through my studies..."
"Right now you don’t need to know that information but i can tell you that I will tell you that right now your safety is the most important thing, trust me". At that point I felt so hopeless. I didn’t have a choice to trust or not. It seemed that someone was out to get me and at this point there was no one I could turn to beside this guy, Gabriele. He was so handsome. He was definitely Italian, his name said it all. He still had all black on and his black hair was still gelled back. He was so...intriguing. He was so composed yet so firm that I was too scared to question him. I just sat there and looked at his green eyes. They were so beautiful yet there was nothing in them. No emotion, no expression. That made them a bit scary but somehow I wasn’t.

As my mind raced I suddenly heard it grumble. How embarrassing... I blushed and was sure I saw a very small smile twitch on the corner of his lips.
"Just outside my door if you walk outside onto the patio, Breakfast will be served. I will be there soon". I thanked Gabriele and got up closing the door behind me and I’m pretty sure he was looking at me the whole time...

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....Gabriele’s Point of view....

I watched her leave my office. I never thought that things would turn out like this. Never had I imagined that I would have to keep her here like this. I couldn’t let her know, for now, why she was here - that would just upset and worry her. I knew it was for her own good though. I got up from my desk, straightened my tie and walked to breakfast.

She was already there seated at the table. Together with her were James and Marie-Lou. James was already talking to her quite animatedly. I think she was listening because she was responding to him but I watched her eyes dart to the food on the table every now and again. I wanted to laugh earlier from her stomach but that would just be unprofessional. As I sat down everyone began taking food and putting it into their plates. As I poured some orange juice I noticed her pouring half a bit of orange juice, some apple juice in her glass.
"Why don’t you just pour the fruit cocktail if you mix them Kara?" Marie-Lou asked the same thing I was thinking but would never have asked.
"Well, um, I don’t like granadilla and guava juice and they normally put that all in fruit cocktail so I’ll rather do that myself", she smiled as she said. I could tell she was trying to eat slowly but was really hungry. I’m sure if no one else was there she would have eaten even more.

When she was done she said thank-you and asked when her stuff would arrive. James told her that her clothes and keyboard were already in her room but the rest would arrive shortly.
She seemed excited that they were there and had this big grin on her face. She had such a nice smile. I looked at her properly. She had brown hair with two dark blue streaks on the front pieces. In the club her hair had been very straight but now had a curl to it. I realized I liked the curl more. She had these big hazel eyes and long eyelashes that seemed to flutter now as she was excited. She also had full lips that still had the remnants of the red lipstick from the night before. I wondered how she would look without all the bad make-up on and different clothes.

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.....Kara’s point of view.....

I ran upstairs excitedly. I think they all thought I was going for my clothes but actually my keyboard was my objective. Right now I realised I was stuck. I really didn’t know where I was or why I was there. I’m really not the type of person to sit and cry – I hate crying, I think I look terrible when I cry. So my music was my outlet. It doesn't matter what I play and sing- it feels like a massage for my soul.

I pushed the door open and saw my baby there. I pushed the balcony doors open, carried my keyboard to the table outside, switched it on and smiled. I had three butterfly stickers on it. I love butterflies...

I began playing and forgetting my strange situation behind me...

~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life can show no mercy
It can tear your soul apart
It can make you feel like you've gone crazy but you're not
Things have seemed to change
There's one thing that's still the same
In my heart you have remained
And we can fly, fly, fly away
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As Kara began playing and singing she had no idea that someone was listening from below. Someone was mesmerized by the melody, someone with emerald green eyes felt their heart soften after such a long time...